Paint Me a Minoru: The Reveal

This winter I’m sewing along with Tasia at Sewaholic.net. A bunch of other talented seamsters and I are all making her Minoru jacket pattern, and this post marks its completion.

If you read all of the fine print last week, you might have noticed that I finished my Minoru jacket last week in time to count as a completed February SWAP item (my sixth item of eleven – over half way there!). I was sewing into the wee hours of the night on leap day to get one last item into the completed list for February, but then I couldn’t show it off because I wanted to save it for this week’s Sew Weekly theme of “Art.” And, my efforts and patience paid off because my jacket was featured yesterday!

I love, love, love that Mena, the lovely woman who runs the Sew Weekly blog (and lives in San Francisco to boot!), opened the challenges and featured spots to all. I get to participate as often as I can without the pressure of producing something every week but with more incentive than I had last year just posting to the community forum.

Anyway, back to the jacket. I’m not even sure how to put into words how much I like this jacket. It’s long and slim and covered in paint. It has a hood and side-seam pockets perfect for my hands and inside pockets perfect for little secrets.

The coat is fully lined, except for inside the collar. I’ve yet to decide whether I’ll be bothered by that or not. So far, I haven’t been. But, so far I haven’t really had to use the hood.

Though Tasia didn’t call for it, I interfaced both the front and the back of the collar pieces. I wanted to give them a bit of support because I modified the pattern a bit here and was worried that the collar would be crazy-all-over-the-place without interfacing. How did I modify the pattern, you ask? I left out the zipper in the collar and created an envelope-style pocket out of the collar instead. Why? It’s really all about the zippers. I couldn’t find the right length separating zipper at my local fabric store. You guys gave me great advice to buy online, but since I didn’t think I had enough fabric for the hood, I didn’t buy a second coordinating zipper for the collar. When I cut my fabric and realized I would be able to include the hood, I came up with the envelope-style collar as a solution. It closes with a hook and eye at the center back. Though I imagine a zippered collar would be the tidier of the options, I like that the seam almost disappears from afar.

What else to say about the jacket? The narrow sleeves and elastic waist keep the jacket trim and flattering. The elastic also gathers the stripes in a pleasing way. I practiced my stripe matching skills again and did my best to keep the stripes going around from front placket through side seams and sleeves. Thankfully the loose alignment of the painted stripes means that close enough looks pretty good.

I’ve worn the jacket out twice now, and both times I’ve gotten compliments. I think there’s just something about painted fabrics that looks unique and grabs one’s attention. I have my eye on another painted fabric, but I don’t yet have the right project in mind for it. It’s all for the best though since I really have to keep focused if I want any chance of completing my SWAP. And my Craftsy classes. And my gifts for my mom. And…

Advertisements

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

Published by Amy

Amy started the blog Sew Well in 2011 to reflect on her journey to learn how to sew well. She is a scientist by training, and she also enjoys running and renovating her 100+ year old home with her husband and daughters in Seattle, WA.
View all posts by Amy

It is beautiful! Love the fabric and it works so well with the jacket. Bold move and it turned out great! You done a awesome job and jacket fits so good on you! I can’t wait to get started on my Minoru (once I clean off my table, that is).

This looks lovely on you, so nicely fitted and flattering! Thanks for your notes on the pattern, I keep longing to make it but am a bit worried I’ll get overwhelmed by all the steps — I’m sure I’ll return to your notes when the time comes!

Fantastic coat and beautiful work! I love how this turned out. Good idea on the collar interfacing because I like how it stands up. It has a much slimmer fit than I thought it’d be which really works with that beautiful print. (And my husband just looked over my shoulder and said, “now that’s a cool jacket!”)

Thanks to both you and your husband! I’m flattered! It does have a slim fit. In fact, before I put in my slippery lining, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get my arms through the sleeves while wearing a sweater. It’s amazing what a difference a slippery fabric makes. Also, I gathered the waist a bit more than Tasia recommended (I think I used ~2″ less elastic length than recommended). Since it’s elasticized, I figured it would give whenever I was wearing something bulky. And, I graded down from the waist to the hips since I’m not pear shaped. I wanted something that would stay closer to me for when I’m biking in to work. Lots of fabric everywhere can get in the way on a bike!

My sewing has been non-existent! I’ve been super stressed out, so I put what I was working on away and took a little sabbatical. I’m really excited to start in on some spring sewing– I’ve got about a month left in my writing class, and I’ll really be able to dig in and do some sewing once that is finished!

Amy- I’m thinking about a stripey or plaid type fabric for my second take on the Minoru, and I wonder if you modified the pattern to remove the gathering? I can’t see much from your photos and would love to hear your take on using a semi-stripe!

I gathered both the neckline and the waist. I didn’t post a photo of a close up, but you should be able to see the waist gathers a little from the photo of the back. I like how the gathering brings together the stripes of color, but then my stripes are already so irregular that I’m not sure what effect a regular stripe would have. I think Tasia did a post about why she doesn’t recommend directional fabrics, but I can’t remember exactly since it was early on. If your fabric is precious, you could draw similar patterns on muslin and make a test Minoru… I am very happy with the effect my fabric had, and I hope yours will have much of the same.

Oh Amy, your jacket is gorgeous!!:) I just purchased the Minoru pattern last week (as a Birthday gift to myself;) I’ll be using your very helpful side-seam pocket tutorial for sure. I’m currently pregnant, but will be making this up in the near future:)

Hello! I’m Amy.

Welcome! Join me as I learn how to sew well while taking time to reflect on the process.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to get new posts delivered to your inbox!

Happenings

Instagram

Current Favorite Posts

All-Time Favorite Posts

Search

Search for:

Categories

Categories

Archives

Archives

Thank You

Thank you so much for reading! Please know that Sew Well contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, then I may receive a commission. Thank you for your support!